It has not been reported yet that the seven women whose
bodies were found since Friday in Indiana were involved in high-risk
lifestyles. But many in the Chicago and northern Indiana area remember the
1990s reign of terror from killers who targeted such women.

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At least four men arrested in Chicago during that
time--Gregory Clepper, Geoffrey Griffin, Hubert Geralds and Andre
Crawford--were linked to the deaths of women in high-risk lifestyles who were
often found in abandoned buildings. The women had often become lost to their
families and were not reported missing.

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Some women who survived the Chicago scourge appear in a
documentary called "Turning A
Corner," by the "PART" network of survivors and public agencies
in 2006. The film was produced by Salome Chasnoff of Beyondmedia as part of a
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless campaign and efforts to enact legislative
change.

One woman in the film says nothing could break her addiction
to the high-risk lifestyle of sex work until a "john" dragged her two
blocks with his car while fleeing the police and she almost lost an eye and had
her face "nearly scraped off." Another woman's wake up call happened,
she says, when her friend was found dead in a nearby alley--and sexually
mutilated. A third woman in the film says, "If I risk a date again, I'll
use, and if I use, I'll die," referring to a drug habit.

Drugs are both a lure and the downfall for women on the
streets say many sources. In 1996, a woman told the Chicago Tribune that her cousin, who was murdered, "would get
high with anybody." The woman who spoke to the Tribune said she knew the suspect in her cousin's murder and
even had used drugs with him herself. "I didn't know he would kill her,"
she added.

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Murderers who seek out women in high-risk lifestyles are not
limited to the US. Eight years ago, at least five women were found murdered
within ten days of each other in Ipswich, England. In 2007, in Vancouver,
British Columbia, pig farmer Robert Pickton was convicted of the second-degree
murders of six women and charged in the deaths of 20 more, many who had been
involved in high-risk lifestyles.

Martha Rosenberg is an award-winning investigative public health reporter who covers the food, drug and gun industries. Her first book, Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health, is distributed by Random (more...)